Alpinestars Reveals ‘Woolies’ Special In Austin On Eve Of MotoGP!

Alpinestars have joined forces with Michael Woolaway, design director at Deux Ex Machina in Venice California, to build a custom machine to celebrate A’Stars’ 55 years of making us all a little safer.

The bike itself is a blend of old and new, using a 1974 Ducati 750 Sport engine in a chassis which utilizes some more contemporary parts too, such as modern wheels, forks and brakes.

It’s quite the looker, too, especially if this kind of custom machine is right up your street!

Selected parts of the press release lay below, right here:

Woolie’s challenge was to communicate the heritage of the brand, its rightful place in history, connecting the beginning of the OSCAR by Alpinestars legendary charisma to today’s forefront of technology and style.

“Alpinestars has covered my body and protected me for all the years I have raced. I have watched it go from its start in boot manufacturing in motocross, to leather race suits, to the mind-boggling innovation baked into the Tech-Air suit they recently brought to the US market. So, after talking with Gabriele at Laguna Seca two years ago, I found a new 1974 Ducati 750 Sport build race engine still in a crate. This motor was built to period race spec and would be the perfect Italian heart of the bike, but the bike also had to have current race spec components to tell the whole “new and old” story of this brand with styling from 1960’s Italian GP and a bit of more modern Ducati GP. Legendary frame builder Jeff Cole and I collaborated on the frame, and Jeff agreed to build the central section for this project”.

There are references to Alpinestars’ history throughout the bike, like the thumb rear brake as a special nod to Mick Doohan and the style of the seat that recalls Nicky Hayden’s Ducati, both riders very significant to Alpinestars history and close to Gabriele. “Very importantly, I wanted the bike to remind people of Alpinestars Italian roots and heritage in racing, so it needed to look and sound like a real race bike, which it does!”

True to the collaborative team spirit of motorsports, contributing manufacturers helped fuel the design and specifications of the build. Akrapovic made the MotoGP-level exhaust system. Another MotoGP linked partner was Michelin who came on board to supply their tire technology and a number of other special and highly skilled collaborators participated to the project.